Francis Howell North is putting on its annual beginning of the year parent-teacher conferences on Sept. 5 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the big gym. The new dean of students, Mike Parker, is the person in charge of producing this year’s conferences. 

“Parents want to come to the first one and put a name to a face,” Parker said. “Maybe have a few conversations with some teachers that maybe they have never met before.”

In the big gym, the teachers will be lined up in tables by their last names, so that they will be easily located by parents and students. Parker would like to let parents know that it is important for parents and teachers to communicate in order to ensure that each child is getting the care and help they need.

“It’s like a partnership between the parents and teachers to help their kid succeed in school,” Parker said. “The only way for that partnership to really work is to have open lines of communication.”

Unlike the year before where the conferences would happen once a semester on back to back nights, Parker has arranged for them to be once per quarter. This is to help parents to be up to date on each quarter on how their child is performing in school and if the parents need to be doing something to help them achieve more. 

“It[going to parent-teacher conferences] lets the kid know that you think school is important and you’re interested in what they’re doing and what they are accomplishing,” Shelby Witherbee, mother of students Avery and Riley Witherbee, said.